Flooding in China forces 94,000 people to flee

Flooding killed four people and forced the evacuation of 94,000 in the north China port city of Dandong after heavy rains caused the Yalu river to breach its banks, state media said on Sunday. Rain continued to fall on Sunday in the region, which  orders North Korea, but the official Xinhua News Agency reported that water levels along the Yalu and its tributaries dropped below flood warning levels. Xinhua said four people died, including a couple in their 70s and a mother and son, after their homes were swept away by flash floods.

An official at Flood Control Headquarters in Dandong said three people were  missing. Transport links to some villages in remote mountainous areas have been cut, with helicopters brought in to airlift people to safety. On Saturday, floodwaters punctured a dike between the river and an economic development zone in Dandong, inundating many neighbourhoods.

The river's water level had fallen since then but remained dangerously high, Xinhua said, without giving specific measurements. Local television showed troops drafted in to help the townspeople. River levels have fallen since Saturday but remained dangerously high, according to the Xinhua news agency. Floods also cut off railway transportation on Saturday, leaving over 3,000 passengers stranded in Dandong Railway Station.  North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said torrential rain and water from the overflowing Yalu (known in Korea as the Amnok) swamped houses, public buildings and farmland in more than five villages near Sinuiju, the city opposite Dandong.

The report described Sinuiju and the surrounding area as "severely affected" by the flooding and said officials, troops and ordinary civilians were involved in rescue work. Much of North Korea's trade with the world passes through the city.

It said at least 5,150 people had been moved out and residents were clambering on rooftops or taking shelter on hilltops.  For China, the Dandong flooding is the latest disaster in the country's worst flood season for over a decade.  Landslides caused by heavy rains have smothered communities in western China and accounted for most of the more than 2,500 people killed. Floods caused by torrential rains have also slashed the southern Sichuan province, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.  On Saturday in the province's Ganluo county, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains paralyzed road traffic.  2500 residents have been evacuated to safety by noon on Sunday, according to state media.  Also on Saturday, almost all the major highways in Sichuan's western city of Ya An were damaged by floods or landslide in the new round of downpours, CCTV said. 

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/flooding-in-china-forces-94-000-people-to-flee-46478?cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/flooding-in-china-forces-94-000-people-to-flee-46478?cp